Moving stories: women's lives, British women and the post-war Australian dream

Alistair Thomson

Speaker
Alistair Thomson

Title
Moving stories: women's lives, British women and the post-war Australian dream

Series
Historical Interpretation

Date recorded
19 June 2008, National Museum of Australia

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Alistair Thomson is known as a skilful and sensitive exponent of oral history. For him people and their life experiences are not only 'sources' for understanding the past, but Alistair's great gift as an historian is to enter, sensitively and without presumption, into his subjects' lives. The insights that arise from this engagement show the value of a personal relationship between historian and oral history informant. Demanding and emotionally challenging, his is an ethical and productive approach to learning about the past through people's own life stories.

Alistair's current project involves exploring the experience of migration to Australia in the 1950s and 1960s.

Alistair Thomson was awarded a Director's Fellowship for 2007-08 at the National Museum's Centre for Historical Research. Alistair was professor of oral history and director of the Centre for Life History Research at the University of Sussex from 1985 to 2007. He returned to Australia (being originally Australian) to join the School of Historical Studies at Monash University in 2007.

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